Trinity Mirror reveals Midlands appointments

Trinity Mirror has made a raft of senior editorial appointments in Birmingham after restructuring its regional newspaper business in the Midlands.

The publisher has appointed four senior editors to operate below a recently appointed team of executive editors as part of its wide-ranging editorial changes.

Former Birmingham Mail chief sub Gary Denning has been appointed to the new post of head of content for the news and features department, while three content editors, each with responsibilities for the Mail, the Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury, have been appointed under him.

Former Mail assistant editor Mike Macklin has become the new deputy regional production editor.

Mail picture editor Steve Murphy has been appointed regional images editor and former Mail sports editor Ken Montgomery has become regional sports editor, overseeing a single sports desk for Trinity's three Birmingham titles. Both new roles report to Mail editor Steve Dyson.

Alan Thorne will become regional business editor and Jon Perks will become the magazines and supplements editor, both reporting to Post editor Marc Reeves.

The moves follow a first round of appointments, which came into effect at the start of September, that saw former deputy of the Sunday Mercury, Paul Cole, move into the new post of executive editor of the paper.

The Birmingham Post deputy editor, Mike Hughes, was appointed executive editor of with Stacey Barnfield taking over as the new executive editor of the Birmingham Mail following the departure of its deputy editor, Carole Cole.

The newly created team of executive editors will sit together on a joint newsdesk to coordinate editorial output across the three titles in the city.

The regional publisher has also appointed former production editor Ray Dunn as regional production editor to work with the editors, executive editors and desk heads to oversee new web-based content management system, ContentWatch, and new production units in the Midlands.

Trinity Mirror is developing a single regional production unit at its new Birmingham headquarters at Fort Dunlop in the north of the city, where pages will be finished and quality-checked.

Trinity Mirror is also rebranding its Birmingham Post and Mail operation to Bpm Media (Midlands) to reflect the changes.

Last month, the publisher effectively made 295 editorial roles redundant across its Midlands operation and invited staff to apply for new jobs in a radically altered set-up that would employ in the region of 65 fewer journalists.

At that time, the only appointments made to the new structure involved retaining the editors of the Birmingham Post and Mail, with the editor of the Sunday Mercury, Dave Brookes, moving to edit the Coventry Telegraph, with control of the Mercury moved under Dyson.

News of the appointments comes a day after the announcement by the National Union of Journalist in Birmingham that it would call off a two-day strike planned for next week after Trinity Mirror announced it would not be making any compulsory redundancies as part of its restructure.

Trinity Mirror's restructure will see the creation of two large multimedia newsrooms in Birmingham and Coventry to provide editorial staff for five titles, including the Birmingham Post and the Coventry Telegraph.

The Birmingham Post will also switch from a broadsheet to a tabloid format and focus more on business news.

The company is also looking to sell two paid-for weeklies and five free titles as part of the overhaul. If a buyer cannot be found, they will be closed.

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